The quarter of Ain el-Mreisseh in Beirut was once like a small village within
Beirut. Sitting at the bottom of a hill overlooking it to the north, and with
small bays east and west of it, it was relatively isolated from the rest of
Beirut. It even had its own fishermen's port. Pedestrian walkways and stairs
linked Ain el-Mreisseh together.

Ain el-Mreisseh was also an architectural jewel. It included a high
concentration of old Lebanese houses, mansions, and other buildings. Several
of these buildings overlooked the sea to the west, including one two-story
building with a two-tiered arcade of pointed arches framing the balconies.
This western view of Ain el-Mreisseh was a classic, the subject of many
paintings and postcards.

Unfortunately, this neighborhood lay in the way as cars and trucks began to
overrun Beirut. It lay smack in the middle between the Corniche and the Port
of Beirut, blocking the way to the southern half of Lebanon. In 1974, the
government began a huge project that essentially ended Ain el-Mreisseh as we
knew it. On Ibn Sina Street, an entire row of old Lebanese buildings on the
north side of the street was destroyed so the road could be made into a
boulevard. The magnificent arcaded building overlooking the sea was also
destroyed. The sea was filled in so the boulevard could be extended from the
then-American embassy eastwards. A bridge was built so that the old port
remained accessible.

Ain el-Mreisseh today is indistinguishable from the rest of Beirut. The old
port, hemmed in by the boulevard, is a sorry sight with no charm; a huge,
ultra-ultra-ultra luxury building (with its own private boat parking
underneath!) looms over the port and blocks the view of the sea from the
neighborhood behind it. The old mosque is separated from the rest of Ain el-
Mreisseh by a wide, hard-to-cross street. The once-classic view looking east
from the old American embassy site is now dominated by featureless multi-story
buildings. Old buildings that survived the government's prewar massacre as
well as the war itself continue to be destroyed and replaced by new buildings.

The need for roads connecting the port with the west half of Beirut was
undeniable. However, the uniqueness of Ain el-Mreisseh should have been reason
enough to do the utmost to save the area, probably through the building of
tunnels under existing streets, something that now seems to have caught on in
post-war Beirut.